Gorgias vs Richpanel for Stores Under 100 Orders
If you run a Shopify store doing fewer than 100 orders a month, you don't need an enterprise helpdesk. You need something that consolidates Instagram DMs, emails, and order questions into one inbox without charging you for capacity you'll never use. Gorgias and Richpanel are the two names that come up most often in that conversation, and they take genuinely different approaches to pricing and features. Here's how they compare for a store your size.
Gorgias vs Richpanel for Small Stores: The Short Answer
Richpanel is usually the better fit for stores under 100 orders a month. Its pricing model is built around monthly ticket volume rather than per-agent seats, which means a solo founder or a two-person team handling 60 tickets a month pays for 60 tickets — not for two seats plus overages. Gorgias is the stronger product overall, with deeper automation, a bigger integration library, and more mature AI features, but its pricing structure tends to punish low-volume stores that still need more than one login.
If you're a one-person operation answering everything yourself and you want the most powerful tool available, Gorgias can work. If you have any combination of multiple agents, seasonal spikes, or a tight budget, Richpanel's model fits the under-100-orders reality better.
What You Actually Pay at Under 100 Orders a Month
Both platforms have changed their pricing tiers multiple times in recent years, so check current pricing on each vendor's site before you commit. What matters more than the exact number is the structure of what you're paying for.
Gorgias bills primarily by the number of support agents (seats), with a monthly ticket allowance attached to each plan. If you exceed that allowance, you pay an overage per additional ticket. For a store doing 80 orders a month, you might generate 40–70 support tickets depending on your product and how many pre-sale questions you get. That's comfortably inside most entry tiers — but the moment you add a second agent to help with weekends or a launch, your bill roughly doubles regardless of whether your ticket volume changed.
Richpanel bills by ticket volume tiers, with a set number of agent seats included at each tier. A store doing 100 tickets a month can typically have multiple people logged in without triggering a seat upgrade, because the meter runs on conversations, not people.
The practical consequence: at very low volume with one agent, the two can land in a similar range. At low volume with two or more agents, Richpanel usually costs less. At high volume with one agent, Gorgias can be competitive.
| Factor | Gorgias | Richpanel |
|---|---|---|
| Primary billing unit | Agent seats | Monthly ticket volume |
| Extra agents | Paid add-on | Often included in tier |
| Ticket overage | Charged per extra ticket | Tier upgrade |
| Free trial | Yes (check length) | Yes (check length) |
| Shopify integration | Native, deep | Native, deep |
| Best fit | 1 agent, growing fast | 1–3 agents, steady low volume |
Feature Comparison: What a Small Store Really Needs
Strip away the marketing and a sub-100-order store needs about six things from a helpdesk:
- A unified inbox for email, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, and Shopify contact forms
- Order lookup inside the ticket so you can see tracking, fulfillment status, and past orders without opening Shopify in another tab
- Canned responses for the five questions you answer every week (where's my order, can I change my address, do you ship to X, return policy, sizing)
- Basic automation rules — auto-tagging, auto-assigning, auto-closing resolved tickets
- A Shopify sidebar widget showing customer order history and lifetime value
- Macros or workflows that combine a canned reply with an action, like issuing a refund or sending tracking
Both platforms cover all six. The differences are in depth and polish.
Gorgias has a larger library of pre-built integrations — Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo, Loop Returns, and dozens more — and its automation builder is more granular. You can build rules that branch on order value, customer tags, shipping country, and previous ticket count. For a store with complex post-purchase flows, that matters.
Richpanel covers the essentials cleanly and adds a self-service portal where customers can track orders and submit returns without contacting you. For a low-volume store, that portal can eliminate a meaningful chunk of "where is my order" tickets — often the single biggest category for small Shopify sellers.
Where Gorgias Earns Its Price (and Where It Doesn't)
Gorgias earns its price when you're scaling. If you're heading toward 500+ orders a month, adding agents, and running paid traffic that generates pre-sale questions, the automation depth pays for itself. Its AI agent for auto-resolving common tickets is more mature than most competitors, and its reporting gives you a real view of response times, resolution rates, and ticket drivers.
It does not earn its price when you're a solo operator answering 50 tickets a month. You'll use maybe 20% of the platform, and you'll be paying for seat capacity you don't need. The overage model also creates a subtle anxiety: every busy week makes you wonder whether you should upgrade a tier you don't actually need yet.
Where Richpanel Wins for Low-Volume Shopify Sellers
Richpanel wins on three fronts for small stores:
- Predictable billing. Your ticket volume is roughly proportional to your order volume, so your bill scales smoothly instead of jumping when you add a helper.
- Self-service that actually gets used. The order tracking and returns portal is genuinely useful for stores that get repetitive WISMO tickets, and it's included rather than sold as an add-on.
- Lower cognitive overhead. Fewer settings, fewer automation branches to configure, faster setup. For a founder wearing five hats, a tool you configure in an afternoon beats a tool you configure over three weekends.
The tradeoff is depth. If you later need complex routing, multi-brand support, or advanced reporting, you may outgrow Richpanel before you outgrow Gorgias.
Hidden Costs: Ticket Overages, Seats, and AI Add-Ons
Watch for these on both platforms:
- Ticket overages. On Gorgias, exceeding your monthly allowance triggers per-ticket charges. On Richpanel, you get bumped to the next tier. Either way, a viral product or a shipping delay can spike your bill.
- Seat add-ons. Adding a second or third agent is the most common surprise on seat-based pricing. Factor this in before you choose.
- AI features. AI auto-replies and AI-assisted drafting are often priced separately or gated to higher tiers. Confirm what's included at your tier before you assume.
- Onboarding fees. Some vendors charge for guided setup. Ask.
- Integration limits. A few integrations may require higher plans. Check that your stack — Klaviyo, Loop, Recharge, whatever you use — is supported at your tier.
Which Helpdesk Should You Pick? A Simple Decision Guide
Choose Gorgias if: - You're a single agent and expect to grow past 300 orders a month within a year - You need deep automation branching and a wide integration library - You're willing to pay for headroom you won't use immediately
Choose Richpanel if: - You have two or more people answering tickets - Your volume is steady and under roughly 150 tickets a month - You want a self-service portal to deflect WISMO tickets - You value predictable billing over maximum feature depth
If you're genuinely on the fence, run both free trials against your real inbox for two weeks. Import your last 30 days of tickets, build your five most common canned responses, and see which one you actually open on a Monday morning. That test beats any comparison table.
Conclusion: For most Shopify stores under 100 orders a month, Richpanel's ticket-based pricing and included self-service portal make it the more sensible default, especially if more than one person touches support. Gorgias is the better long-term platform if you're growing fast and need automation depth — just be honest about whether you'll use it before you pay for it. Check current pricing on both sites, since tiers change frequently.
FAQ
Is Gorgias or Richpanel cheaper for a one-person Shopify store? At very low ticket volume with a single agent, the two can land in a similar range, but the structures differ — Gorgias charges by seat, Richpanel by ticket volume. Run both trials with your real numbers and check current pricing, because entry tiers change often.
Can I switch helpdesks later without losing my ticket history? Both platforms support exporting tickets, and both integrate natively with Shopify, so your order data stays put. Migration is tedious but not risky. Plan to rebuild your canned responses and automation rules manually — that's the real work.
Do I even need a helpdesk at under 100 orders a month? If you're answering fewer than 20 tickets a month, a shared inbox like Gmail with a Shopify order-lookup extension may be enough. Once you're juggling Instagram DMs, email, and order questions across multiple channels — or once a second person needs access — a helpdesk starts paying for itself.